Tasting Return

Well, that break was longer than I thought.  I told myself that I had to get through the past couple of months before I could return to all things.  Responsible, eh?  Admittedly, starting about a month ago I was just lazy.

That being said, I thought it would be appropriate to have a tasting for the return as well as for a friend of mine's departure from Chicago.  Since we were both fans of sour and funk, we decided to center it around that.  Luckily, one of my friends picked me up a couple of Russian River Consecrations (as well as some other goodies) while she was in Portland.  I added in a couple bottles of Jolly Pumpkin and the Bruery's Sour in the Rye to round things out.

All seemed well, until we got to the actual tasting.  Luckily we started with the Consecration, which ended up being one of the most rounded sour beers I have had to date.  Needless to say, I will be asking my friend for more when she is back out West and will be posting it's own review soon.  Unfortunately, somehow my friend and I both lost the photos of it though.

Next my friend had brought over the currently legally challenged West Sixth Brewing IPA.  Although good, his next treat was really different.  We broke out a bottle of Rasputin Hopped Whiskey.  For those to lazy to click on the link, the description on the website is

"To make our experimental Rasputin whiskey, we first brew a traditional Imperial stout beer.  When we distill, we pass the new whiskey vapors through hops, adding spicy floral notes to the big malt and chocolate flavors of the stout.  Aging in charred oak barrels adds vanilla and caramel.  The end result is a rich, very complex hopped whiskey."

Honestly, there wasn't a huge
difference, but something wasn't the same as normal whiskey.  We both agreed that there was a sort of resiny aftertaste to the whiskey.  Although it was interesting/tasty, it isn't the type of whiskey that I would prefer every day.

Needless to say, we didn't feel like wasting some of the other sours after sipping on the whiskey, so we decided to put them back in the fridge.  Good news is that I have some goodies to post on in the future, and some brewing ventures as well.

So will you get off my back already?